First-time manager Brad Ausmus’ coaching staff will include Omar Vizquel, who’s joining the Tigers as a first base coach.

Vizquel immediately went into coaching following 24 seasons in the majors, spending this year as a roving minor league infield instructor for the Angels. Now he joins Ausmus’ staff, which includes veteran bench coach Gene Lamont, who’s a holdover from Jim Leyland’s regime.

Vizquel debuted in 1989 and played 24 seasons and Ausmus debuted in 1993 and played 18 seasons, but somehow they managed to never be teammates. And now that Vizquel is on a big-league coach staff at age 46, it seems like only a matter of time before he becomes a manager.

Not that this was a “diversity” hire because I think he’d be a great hire if his name was Sven Svensson, but he’s got the added benefit of being a Venezuelan coach for a team that’s got a very strong Latin American contingent, with a heavy pipeline to Venezuela (Cabrera, VMart, Infante, Sanchez, Perez, etc.)

I especially love the idea of Vizquel working with Jose Iglesias to make him even more ridiculous defensively.

Jason Beck (I think it was him) reported on twitter earlier today that Dave Dombrowski has said he wanted a spanish speaking coach on staff. This may be a “diversity” hire in that sense, but it seems like it could be a really good “baseball” hire also.

After he retired, he indicated that he wanted to be a MLB manager; however, it appears that the best job he could find was the one with the Angels. I assume that he still wants to become a manager and this job is the next step in achieving his goal.